Corporation’s plan to lay plastic roads full of holes

CHENNAI: Corporation of Chennai made a big ballyhoo about its plan to re-lay roads with a combination of plastic and bitumen that it said would make the road surfaces stronger and last longer. Three years after it announced the project in 2011, the corporation has quietly wrapped up the plan and disposed of it like the plastic waste that it dumps in its open garbage dump yards. To be fair to the civic body, it was up against a powerful contractor lobby that was reluctant to lay stronger roads because a longer lifespan would result in fewer tenders for work. Doing a good job is not good for business if you are a contractor. Given that the project appears to be no more than a pipedream, at least in the city, chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s statement in the assembly on Friday came as a surprise. She said the government had spent 717.97 crore to relay 5,710km of roads across the state with the bitumen-plastic mix and said 1,600km more would be re-laid at a cost of 175 crore this year. Official sources said the corporation has stopped collecting plastic waste to use while relaying roads. Several plastic shredding machines at corporation zonal offices were lying idle and unable to shred any plastics due to technical glitches. An RTI petition has also revealed that the civic body has failed to conduct tests for plastic content in newly-laid roads. Chennai Plastic Manufactures and Merchants Association president G Sankaran, who filed an RTI petition, said a section of officials sabotaged the plastic-bitumen road plan. “When P W C Davidar was the corporation commissioner, he ensured that plastic was procured through open tenders,” Sankaran said. “But after he was moved out, the corporation permitted contractors to purchase plastic from the open market.” Sankaran said contractors rarely use plastic for road laying. “Our members provided plastic to the corporation at 20/kg. Contractors now source it from the market at inflated rates, collect the cash for the procurement, and then do not use plastic while laying roads,” he said. “They are causing the corporation huge losses.”

When the corporation used tenders to purchase plastic, officials allowed stock to pile up in zonal offices. Most of the plastic was never used for the intended purpose. A corporation official denied the charges. “We will take action if we find anything amiss with the plan,” he said.